November 2010 Blog Posts (192)

The 1930s through to the 1940s are known as the Golden Age for Hollywood. During those days eight major studios controlled the entire movie industry from top to bottom. They would make the movie and distribute it via their own theatres. But the big studios were also held in a choke hold by the American mob, which… Continue

Prison is a cauldron of hate. A mixing pot of volatile tempers and personalities that can incite violence in a nanosecond. The territorial, drug and monetary beefs from the streets bleed over into the prison yards as racism intensifies and the hate it spews forth explodes in the form of prison gang warfare.

The ghosts of past conflicts and crimes still haunt the streets of Palermo.

Near the harbour, around Piazza Fonderia, you can see the bomb shattered remains of buildings hit by the Allies in preparation for their invasion of the island in 1943. In the Giardino Garibaldi, with its extraordinary ancient fig trees with drooping aerial roots, you…

Puparo has compiled the following text through thorough research. However, if you see an error, or would like to add something, Puparo welcomes the contribution.

CataniaCatania has the quarters San Cristoforo (area of Catania’s Fish Market), Puntina and San Cosimo. Catania has an international airport Fontanarossa (just outside the city and there drive busses between) and a… Continue

Photo above was taken at Giuseppe Bono's wedding.Standing: second from left a young Vincent Basciano, the man on his right is Philip Giaccone.Sitting at the table from left to right: Joseph Benanti, Dominick Trinchera, J.B. Indelicato, Frank Lino, Anthony "Bruno" Indelicato.

By David AmorusoPosted on October 4, 2008 (First appeared in the 2008 spring issue of… Continue

Salvatore Montagna burst onto the front page of the New York Daily News in 2006 when authorities labeled him the new acting boss of the Bonanno Crime Family. But before the public and press got to know him he was already being deported to Canada. Here is the story behind this 35-year-old reputed mob boss.…

Benjamin 'Lefty Guns' Ruggiero was one of the true Cosa Nostra Mafioso, a guy who was old school and knew how Mafia politics worked. Lefty was a Bonanno soldier who was feared and respected by his fellow Mafioso and in the end Lefty showed them all, when he just wouldn't break Omerta. Most of you probably know Lefty from the… Continue

Anthony "T.G." Graziano was born on November 12, 1940 in New York. When asked by a judge how far he got in school, Graziano answered "about the seventh grade". Before his school days were over Graziano had taken to a life of crime which eventually saw him joining the… Continue

Steven "Stevie Wonder" Crea is one of the leading members of the troubled Lucchese Crime Family. Crea is a powerhouse in labor racketeering. Using the reputation of the Lucchese Family and, when needed to prove that reputation, its muscle, he had gained a position in which he could put in place a mob tax of five… Continue

Louis "Louis Bagels" Daidone was born on February 23, 1946. In the early 1980s the FBI listed him as a soldier in the Lucchese Crime Family. In 1989 Daidone received orders that he had to kill small time car thief Thomas Gilmore. The mob suspected that Gilmore was a rat. Daidone and two associates tailed Gilmore to his home… Continue

The Lucchese Crime Family's New Jersey faction was once among the most powerful in the state. They operated from Bergen County through Essex County, Morris County, Passaic County and Union County, to Sussex County. Their criminal business included illegal gambling, loansharking, drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, fraud, extortion, and anything else that made a fast… Continue

Joseph "Little Joe" Defede was born in 1934 in New York. In his early days as a mobster Defede used to operate a hot dog truck in Brooklyn that doubled as a numbers bank. As a close personal friend of Lucchese Boss Vittorio Amuso Defede started climbing the ranks and by 1994, not long after Amuso's conviction and life… Continue

Thomas Lucchese was Boss of the Mafia Family that still bears his name. A ruthless guy with a ruthless reputation but he somehow managed to have friends who were law abiding citizens and weren't scared of him, later when they found out he was a major figure in the New York underworld they didn't know where to run. Lucchese's… Continue

Alphnose "Little Al" D'Arco was born July 28, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York. As early as D'Arco could remember he hung around people who were either associates, members or even bosses of the Mafia. As he grew up in Brooklyn he made visits to bosses of all the 5 Families in New York. Pretty soon Little Al knew that this was the… Continue